Passenger train on Ludhiana-Chandigarh track likely to be flagged off on April 1

The much-awaited passenger train between Ludhiana and Chandigarh is expected to be flagged off on April 1 since the testing of the new track is proceeding well.

A goods train was recently used for a test run on the track, Ludhiana railway station superintendent Ravinder Sharma said on Saturday.

The engineering wing of the railways had completed the construction of the track by February 20, 2013. However, to foreclose any chance of shortcomings, the trial of the track by running a lone diesel engine was taken up by officials two weeks ago.

Both trials have been completed without technical or construction problems, after which railway authorities are waiting for approval to undertake a trail run of passenger train a week before opening the route to normal train traffic.

“If the trial run by a passenger train encounters no problem on the 110-km route, we will definitely formally inaugurate the train on April 1. A lone diesel engine has already been used on the 37-km New Morinda-Khamano-Samrala-Madpura section,” a railway engineering wing official Ravi Gupta said.

Out of the 110-km Ludhiana-Chandigarh rail link, the 45-km Chandigarh-New Morinda section is already functional. The work to lay track on the 14-km Ludhiana-Sahnewal section was completed on February 24.

Railway officials said that the 51-km track from New Morinda to Ludhiana has been laid and only the final trial run on this section remains to be done.

The Ludhiana-Chandigarh rail link has missed many deadlines over the years due to several reasons.